


Ghost boy

by Fictropes



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Office, Friends to Lovers, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-30
Updated: 2020-12-30
Packaged: 2021-03-11 03:42:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,371
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28438563
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fictropes/pseuds/Fictropes
Summary: He clues into what’s actually happening the eleventh time it happens.
Relationships: Dan Howell/Phil Lester
Comments: 16
Kudos: 84





	Ghost boy

This particular thing has been going on for five weeks, and honestly at this point it’s the only thing keeping Dan sane. He’d taken this job on a whim, on a _crap my rent is due and I can’t be picky._ Office life isn’t exactly for him, the whole atmosphere of… talking to people. The whole thing about office drinks on a Friday after work, too long email threads, having to actually socialise at the water cooler. 

That isn’t for him, but Phil might be. 

Phil is a delight, and that sounds like a made up description of a person but— he is, a proper fucking delight. He brings Dan coffee at least twice a week, always has a pen on hand when Dan’s has run out, tucks the label in the back Dan’s shirt when it’s hanging out—which is apparently always. 

It’s a bit of problem, really. Work and crushes don’t mix, but Dan’s got a proper crush. A proper school yard, wants to pull Phil’s hair crush. So, if he’s started dressing a bit nicer, started an actual chapstick routine so his lips don’t look like sponges, then that’s his own business. And if Phil has started flirting back then, well, Dan’s glad the tighter trousers are doing something. 

So it’s been happening for five weeks—Dan has been here for three months in total—but it started happening just after he took a week off as holiday. He got back and all the stuff on his desk was inched over ever so slightly, just spilling onto Phil’s desk. Immediate thoughts were odd prank, someone has noticed my extreme need for symmetry, there was an earthquake specifically just in the office whilst I was away. 

He takes too long moving it all back, making sure everything is perfectly placed. Then he comes in again the next day and everything is back to half on Phil’s desk, half on his own. 

He clues into what’s actually happening the eleventh time it happens. 

“D’ya think you’ve got a little ghost moving your stuff?” Phil asks, and he sounds absolutely bursting at the seams—probably expected Dan to say something about this weeks ago. 

“What’d you mean? My stuff is where it’s always been.” And Dan thinks they’re both in on the joke, they’re in a little _wink wink, nudge nudge_ situation. But Phil’s face falls, all his happiness sucked down a fucking drain because apparently Dan just said the entirely wrong thing. 

Dan is going to try and fix it, but he doesn’t get a chance because Phil is standing up with an armful of jumbled files and a bunch of uttered excused. 

-

So. He’s fucked it, as he does most things in life. But this time he’s going to try to fix it, at least a little bit. Not that Phil is acting any differently to usual, still as delightful—still as Phil as ever—except he’s stopped with the moving things, and Dan oddly misses it. 

There was something about coming into the office in the morning, seeing Phil sat all smug at his desk—sat there with a secret he thought they both understood. It was routine at this point, once Phil even helped him put it all back in the right place—they brushed hands and it was all Dan thought about all day. 

“Phil.”

“Mhm?” 

“Are you going to the office party?” 

“Dunno, why?” Phil asks, typing away at something that looks vaguely important. Dan feels a bit bad for interrupting him, but not bad enough to stop. 

“Just wondered. I was thinking about it, but only if someone I actually like is there.” 

That makes Phil stop, makes him spin in his chair so he can actually check those words came from Dan’s mouth. Dan likes it when this happens, when they both turn so their knees touch, when they both have a stupid moment of playing footsie. It’s gotten them in trouble before, a manager walking past and giving them both a look of _be careful, I can fire you._

“You just want someone there to bitch at.” Phil smiles, careful as he reaches out brushes his thumb against Dan’s cheekbone. “Eyelash. Make a wish.” 

So Dan does. 

And when Phil leaves to go do his big important meeting, Dan moves all his stuff slightly over to the left, let’s it spill out across Phil’s desk. 

-

It fixes whatever he’d accidentally broken. 

“I’m just saying, cows on the moon would be kind of cool.” Phil has photoshop open, a cow wearing a space helmet on his screen. 

“Yeah, but, I don’t think that was the vibe your client was going for.” He uses his feet to wheel over the small amount of space between them. He wants to be stupid and hook his chin over Phil’s shoulder, whisper all his recommendations into his ear—but office, too public. “Maybe you should start your own insane advertisement company.” 

Phil budges over ever so slightly, makes room for the two of them. It’s intimate in a way it shouldn’t be, their shoulders pressed together, Phil tilting his head so he can speak low—all up in each others personal space. 

Three months is enough time to fall in love, right? 

“And I was thinking—“ Phil trails off, realises Dan isn’t listening because he’s too deep in fantasy land. “Dan?” Phil asks, eyes flicking down to his lips for a split second—blink and you’ll miss it. 

“Yeah?” Dan murmurs, and this could be a moment if they weren’t literally surrounded by other people. “Thinking about cows on the moon?”

“Thinking about something.” 

And it really, really could be a fucking moment. Dan half wants to suggest they just scurry off to the toilets together, get all hot and heavy against the row of sinks. But he also doesn’t want that at all, for Phil to think this is some weird fling. 

“I like your shirt.” Dan says, just so he has the excuse to reach out and fiddle with the collar. 

Life is made up of moments that don’t seem all that extraordinary, but honestly Dan thinks any moment spent with Phil deserves to framed in his own brain. 

“Thanks, it’s new. I erm— your hands are warm.” 

“My blood is just lava.”

“Ah.” Phil laughs, wraps delicate fingers around Dan’s wrist just to test the theory. “Makes sense, you’re hot.” 

Dan turns red, and Phil seems to realise what he’s just said. Scrambles to correct himself, ends up just making a series of noises that make no sense.

It’s one of those extraordinary moments. 

-

“I think Sarah wants me dead.” Phil plops down beside him, an hour late because apparently his tube had been disrupted by bees—and no, Phil wouldn’t expand on that.

“Yeah, why’s that?” Dan spins his chair, bored up until now—just waiting for Phil to come in and quite down his brain. Being in this office isn’t good for him, needs something else the minute he can get it. Such stiff structure does nothing for him, and it’d surprised him—honestly. Thought his brain would thrive on routine, by so far all he thrives on is Phil.

“Well, the hour late thing, and the cows in space thing. The client actually loved it, so firstly, ha Daniel.” Phil looks about two seconds away from bouncing up and down in his chair, throwing a party for his own brilliance. 

“Offft, well, I suppose I owe you an apology—or something else.” Dan waggles his eyebrows, and it makes all this pink appear high up on Phil’s cheekbones. 

It’s miraculously a first. Weeks of trying to make it happen, and all it takes is a stupid little comment about nothing. It’s easier for Phil to get Dan to blush, all he has to do it brush their hands together, to say something about how his jumper looks nice. 

“Yeah, well.” Phil clears his throat, tries to hide all that embarrassed behind his hands. “Shutup.” 

“Shutup? Good response.” Dan just—he wants. He wants Phil to realise he’s been flirting back, realise he’d known about the desk thing, realise they’re supposed to be together forever—or something. “Thought anymore about the party?”

“You gonna dress up, nice and fancy?” Phil asks, and Dan’s heart stops when he turns in his chair, does a full body up and down. Dan is definitely being checked out. 

“I—yeah, I can dress up nice and fancy.” Dan can play this game, can play the obvious—it’s the unspoken which is hard. “You can choose, if you want.” 

Phil lets out a little—it’s a whine. It’s a stupid little whine that Dan will think about every night for the rest of his life, or at least until he has Phil in his bed. 

“Don’t even tempt me. I’d put you in actual colour…” Phil trails off to think, to come back with something even more ludicrous than the first suggestion. “Or a maid outfit.”

Now it’s Dan’s turn to get all stupid and pink, to sit looking like an idiot in his desk chair—his i’m obvious and dumb throne. “If you wanna roleplay, Phil, all you have to do is ask.” 

“Absolute menace.” Phil shakes his head, gets back to work on his cows in space—or whatever the fuck he’s moved onto now. 

And Dan should probably go back to work to, actually do the thing he is paid to do, but Phil is distracting. Watching him bite at his lip as he thinks, watching his Adams apple as he swallows, even watching him play awkwardly with his own fingers is enough to take Dan right out of work and right into dreams of Phil. 

He ends up taking most of his projects home with him. Struggling to complete something in his own living room because he wasted all day staring at a man who’s either definitely interested in him, or just natural that flirty. 

“Stop watching me, I can feel you.”

“I’m not!” Dan protests, even though he definitely was. Even though it could be easily proved if you went back and watched the cctv footage. He thinks that footage would be enough to get him fucking fired at this point. 

“I know you wanna bite me, but you can’t do that on the clock.” 

“I— you’re so obsessed with biting, bitey boy.” 

“You’re the one looking at my neck, vampire.” Dan can see the barest hint of smile from this angle, knows Phil is just teasing but honestly, Dan had been looking at his neck. Had been having not so platonic thoughts about leaving a mark right _there_ —for everyone to see. 

“Shutup. Go do work.”

“Dan, your screen is literally off.” 

-

Dan doesn’t wear a maids outfit, but he does wear something a bit too revealing. A shirt that’s gonna definitely reveal his nipples if he moves around too harshly. 

Phil greets him at the door, or he half greets him. Is mid way through saying hello when all the words die on in his tongue, when he instead opts to yank Dan in by the lace of his shirt and kiss him. 

It’s a tentative, soft thing despite the violence of Phil’s hands. It lasts a second, if that, because Phil’s pulling away to check. To look up at Dan with wide, questioning eyes. 

_Is this ok?_

And if Dan were capable of forming a sentence he’d say _yeah, this is ok, this is more than ok, this is all i’ve ever wanted._

But he can’t, he can’t speak because he can barely think. All he knows is Phil, how is feels to have him. So he just nods, a dumb little thing that he hope portrays everything he wants it to portray. 

“Yeah?” Phil whispers, apparently needed clarification out-loud. “This ok?”

And Dan just nods again, but Phil’s nothing if not stubborn—just stands there. Just waits patiently for Dan to gather any sense. 

“Yeah, fuck, do it again.” 

And the second kiss is anything but tentative. It’s clingy hands, it’s Dan trying to fucking make a home for himself in Phil’s mouth, it’s too much for a doorway where anyone they work with could walk past. But neither of them care, neither of them even get inside because getting a taxi back to Phil’s flat seems like a much better idea. 

-

On Monday morning all of Dan’s stuff is pushed onto Phil’s desk. 

“Hi.” Phil smiles.

“Ugh—why? I just sorted it.” 

“Cos I need you to know it was me! You like—seemed to now know I was flirting with you via moving all your stuff.” 

And that makes Dan laugh, makes him nearly cry because how cute can one human be? 

“I knew it was you, ghosty boy. I thought we were both in on the joke!”

-

_He see’s him one day, purposely— a set up designed just to catch Phil in the act. The moving happens during meetings, or the days Phil stays a little later than usual. Without Dan about Phil is free to do whatever weird shit he likes._

_Dan leaves an hour early on a Thursday, goes through his usual goodbye routine. Apart from he doesn’t actually leave the building. He goes downstairs, hangs around awkwardly in reception for five minutes. Pats his pockets like he’s forgotten something._

_It doesn’t take long to catch Phil. Apparently he does it the second he can no longer see the back of Dan, gets to work straight away on ever so gently pushing everything over onto his own desk. At first Dan had been strongly against the whole ‘collaborative’ work place vibe management were going for, but sitting next to Phil all day everyday has changed his mind._

_He’s going to walk up, he's going to say something, a big ha, a big I caught you. But then he sees Phil step back, sees him smile in that big way that he does—watches him be proper proud of himself. Dan turns around and goes home._

_-_  
  
“Oh, you actually knew?” Phil frowns. “Well, now I feel thick.”

“Oh, you are thick… or something about you is.”

“Don’t talk about my penis at the office!” 

**Author's Note:**

> hi, just to let you all know (cos usually i am just on here all the time lol) that i need to take a couple weeks break from writing fic. I am just starting to feel really bad about my writing and i keep comparing myself to everyone else and deciding that i am just very bad and awful gbrfedwefgb . so before this turns real ugly i'm gonna step back! sorry about the chaptered fics, i promise i will come back to them in a couple of weeks. and thanku all so much for your comments, they all really do mean so much to me ;_; and i wish my head wasn't stupid and could accept that people like me LOL. i will be re-reading your comments over the next couple weeks to remidn myself why i love writing so much ;_;.


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